MILAN (Reuters) – The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy barreled past 10,000 on Saturday, a figure that made an extension of a national lockdown almost certain.
Relatives attend the funeral of a woman who died from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as Italy struggles to contain the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Seriate, Italy March 28, 2020. REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo
Officials said 889 more people died in the previous 24 hours, the second highest daily tally since the epidemic emerged on Feb. 21, and that total fatalities reached 10,023.
Confirmed cases rose by about 6,000 to 92,472, the second-highest number of cases in the world behind the United States.
Officials said the numbers would have been worse without a national lockdown.
“Without these measures, we would be seeing far worse numbers and our health service would be in a far more dramatic state. We would have been in an